My friend's scandel, "Elmo not a girl?"

[Beauregard]

I was chatting in the common room here at uni (*cough*), and happened to get onto the subject of the Muppets and Sesame Street (which is, of course, a highly unusual thing for me to do...er...) Anyway! A friend overheard and started to go through the Muppets they remembered, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, etc, and then Elmo.

She shivered (don't we all?) and mentioned that "Elmo has always creeped me out with her strange voice."

"His," I swiftly corrected.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Elmo is a boy."

"WHAT?"

It took me a while to explain.

Anyway, my point is, if she thought Elmo was female, are there any other Muppets/SS characters you used to think were feminine? For a long time I thought that Big Bird was, well, a chick.

 

[redBoobergurl]

I may have thought Grover was a girl at one point in time. I seem to kind of remember this and it didn't help that my grandma gave me a stuffed Baby Grover doll that wore a pink bonnet and diaper "Grover" written in pink. When I was really little I'm sure it didn't register with me that Grover is a guy's name.

Along the same vein did anyone ever watch Garfield and Friends? I always thought Nermal was a girl, but in truth Nermal is a boy!

 

[minor muppetz]

I knew somebody who thought that Big Bird was a girl, even when I corrected him. He also thought that Phil from Rugrats was a girl (I also used to think the same, and when I leard that Phil was a boy he didn't beleive me).

 

[D'Snowth]

Ah ha ha ha!

 

[Beauregard]

I may have thought Grover was a girl at one point in time. I seem to kind of remember this and it didn't help that my grandma gave me a stuffed Baby Grover doll that wore a pink bonnet and diaper "Grover" written in pink. When I was really little I'm sure it didn't register with me that Grover is a guy's name.

Hehe!

I think the next generation will have the same confusion with Piglet. He is often presented in a rather 'pink' fashion.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I'm so glad you brought this up! For years, I wasn't sure if Gladys was supposed to be a girl or a boy, lol. Now obviously she was a cow and had a girl's name. But I don't know, she sounded more a like guy to me, lol (of course now we know why!). I wonder if that's why they had her wearing those flower hats, maybe other kids were confused!

On a similar note, through the years, I've noticed kid's shows often use female performers to voice young male characters, and kids often think these characters are supposed to be girls. A big example is the Care Bears. So many of them are referred to as "he" but they're clearly voiced by women. Lol

And yes I ALWAYS thought Nermal was a girl! And I'm still having problem buying that it's a boy!

 

[Beauregard]

I kinda had the impression that all the Care Bears were female...just from that perfume smell the toys always had!

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah I still say most of the Care Bears were girls (with some boys) despite all the "he" pronouns, lol.

 

[The Count]

OK... If this is gonna devolve into discussing other characters, then I'm shoving it into another folder.

And Beth, where is this bunk about Nermal being a boy kitten? Nermal is, has been and always will be a girl kitten.

 

[CensoredAlso]

And Beth, where is this bunk about Nermal being a boy kitten? Nermal is, has been and always will be a girl kitten.

I can't find a definite source right now, but several sources have called Nermal a boy. Plus I think I remember Garfield calling Nermal a "he" once or twice.